The cold, gray days of February are a contrast to her quilts, which are full of color, life, and strength.

Words such as ‘Man’s reach should exceed his grasp’ and ‘I read I write therefore I am empowered’ are splashed across her African-American inspired quilts.

“I learned to quilt when I was 19, so I’ve been quilting for 41 years. There actually were not a lot of people at that point making quilts. It was one of those arts that sort of died, so I immediately realized that it was exactly the art medium that I’d been looking for,” said Boss.

The colorful, African-American inspired quilts of Susan Boss, hanging on the walls at the Easthampton City Arts Plus gallery.Elise Linscott photo

While Boss has been quilting most of her life, her work has evolved with her. Boss started making quilts in a more traditional fashion, but everything changed after one particularly inspiring exhibit of African-American made quilts at Williams College.

“I was just totally knocked off base. Because my first reaction was, these people were cheating. They had big stitches, they were sewing rocks onto the surface of their quilts. Everything wasn’t at a right angle. A lot of strips in their pieces, the strips weren’t always straight. A part of me was just horrified,” said Boss.

“Then the more I walked around, the more I got this sense of complete freedom, that these women had seen past all the boundaries, all the rules and regulations that I had adopted. I mean, these were dead people’s rules and regulations. I had somehow agreed to these without thinking, and that these women had taken the information from this craft and they had made it their own. And so by the time I left, I had turned around 180 degrees and realized that I too could do anything I want. I could adopt the techniques and rules that worked for me, and the ones that did not, there was no big quilt maker in the sky that was gong to strike me dead if I change things.”

After struggling with a series of health issues, including breast cancer and arthritis that left her temporarily lame, Boss decided to apply to the Easthampton City Arts Plus gallery and was accepted.

Some of Susan Boss' quilts, displayed at the Easthampton City Arts Plus gallery.Elise Linscott photo

“I thought her work would really work well, just the color I thought would be great for this time of year too, coming in here when it’s all yucky outside, it’s nice to embrace this. The implementation of the text and the quilt making I think is really fascinating because on the one side she has this folk art happening, just looking at African-American quilt making, then she’s looking at pop art with the text and putting them together, and I don’t see that that often. It’s a really interesting combination,” said Easthampton City Arts Coordinator Burns Maxey.

Working with a commitment and deadline was just the motivation Boss needed to produce artwork again, she said.

“Really at this point, even after doing 30 pieces or so, I just feel like I’ve just started to scratch the surface of what’s possible in terms of this marriage between text and quilt making,” said Boss.

Boss is also a part-time art teacher at the elementary school in Leverett. Her past artwork includes paintings, as well as a series of clocks and robots made out of found objects, which she makes with her husband Mark Brown.

Boss’ quilts will be on view at the Easthampton City Arts Plus gallery until Feb. 26. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday and Saturday from noon. to 6 p.m.